Pandemic Diary – August 24 to 30

Monday, August 24    Deaths: 420 (+3)    Cases 25,155 (+218)

Shopping day and also coffee with R, at Susan’s garden shop café. M and R talked while E got groceries at the Co-op next door. When the shopping was done, E sat down and helped M finish his latte. R is looking much better, having mostly recovered from his back surgery and having been able to get off the pain meds. 

E made pisto Manchego for dinner. Great summer fare. 

Tuesday, August 25    Deaths: 427 (+7)    Cases 25,391 (+236)

The Republican national convention is going on this week. Yesterday, there was a speech by Kimberly Guilfoyle, a “senior campaign advisor.” M watched a little. There seemed to be no content, just a screeching, histrionic call for obeisance to the supreme leader. Over at Daring Fireball, John Gruber responded to it by mentioning a racist 90s era speech by Pat Buchanan and quoting Molly Ivins’ fabled response: “It probably sounded better in the original German.”

Today, Trump was shown welcoming immigrants, pardoning a criminal, and basking in the support of a number of black citizens. Having recently re-negotiated her pre-nuptial agreement, Melania Trump was the featured speaker. Here are a couple of points she made about the Donald. None of it strikes me as remotely true, but of course that’s not the point.  “Whether you like it or not, you always know what he’s thinking. And that is because he’s an authentic person who loves this country and its people and wants to continue to make it better. He wants nothing more than for this country to prosper and he doesn’t waste time playing politics.” 

Wednesday, August 26    Deaths 433 (+6)    Cases 25,571(+180)

The test positive rate was quite low today: 3.79%. This continues a somewhat positive trend for that statistic in Oregon. 

M and E hosted backyard tertulia today and made a coffee cake for the occasion. E was in charge of batter and M made the filling/topping. Eve got the recipe from a friend while both were living in Spain in the seventies. It still works. 

Thursday, August 27    Deaths: 438 (+5)    Cases 25,761 (+190)

Five new deaths, but the test positive rate was low again, 3.18%. 

We talked today via WhatsApp with our friends F and I in Chile. Nice to see them. F wants us to help with a special Zoom-based seminar for students about to graduate from the TESL program where she teaches. We’ll see what we can think of that we might do. Everyone tells us that adapting activities to Zoom mediated learning is a lot of work. F, of course, says that it’s pretty easy. 

As soon as Laughter Yoga comes to an end, we’re off to Sisters, Oregon to spend the night. In the morning the plan is to get breakfast from the Sisters Bakery and then hike up to Chush Falls. The trailhead is up 6 miles of gravel road, so it’ll be interesting to see how crowded it is. 

Friday, August 28    Deaths: 447 (+9)    Cases 26,054 (+293)   (10.38 deaths per 100,000)

It was 39 degrees outside when we rolled out of our Best Western bed in Sisters at around 7:00 AM. At least that’s what our phones said. And, yes, it did seem a bit chilly when we got outside a little while later on our way to fetch breakfast. We found the Sisters Bakery up and running and as popular as ever. E got in line and M went off get gas for the Mazda. Only two “parties” of customers were allowed into the shop at any one time. When it came E’s turn to enter, she saw that the customer group in front of her included a young woman who was getting a selfie in front of the counter. She had come out for do-nuts wearing a tee shirt and hot pants. Cold? What cold? E got us a few of our favorites: one chocolate bar, one plain old-fashioned, one maple old-fashioned, and one massive apple fritter that we meant to keep and  share for breakfast on Saturday. Just as E came out the door with her box, M pulled to the curb and whisked her away back to the motel room. We then used the in-room coffeemaker to create two steaming cups of half-caf complete with artificial creamer and a touch of sugar. It was a magnificent breakfast. M overdid, as he always does, downing both a the large choco-frosted bar and the normal sized plain. Eve underdid at first, eating only her maple old-fashioned. But since that wasn’t quite enough for a hiking day breakfast, she sliced off just a bit of the fritter, which made everything all right. Here’s a picture of the fritter once it had made its way back to Corvallis. When it was purchased, there was a serious irregularity of shape on the lower left. But, as mentioned, E was able to fix that right up.

Having given breakfast the time it deserved, we eventually set out for the trailhead, arriving there at about 10:30. The road was rough, but we found that it wasn’t rough enough to have prevented eight other vehicles from having arrived before us. Still, it worked out pretty well. We passed some people now and then but spent most of our time with the feeling of having the place to ourselves. There was lots of room up at the top and a surprising amount of water coming down the falls. 

The hike was 5.2 miles in all with only 400 feet of elevation gain, not too difficult though a little on the long side. M’s right hip was bothering him toward the end. E had a few difficulties at the start but often seems to get stronger as a hike goes on. She’s a tough one. 

Saturday, August 29    Deaths: 454 (+7)    Cases 26,293 (+239)

This morning E went out to help her friend S by taking the dog for a walk. S is a former yoga teacher who lives in a lovely spot out in the country but who now has mobility issues. Several of her friends are taking it in turn to help out in various ways. The dog is very nice mini Australian shepherd and it was a lovely morning, so E enjoyed the walk. She noticed again today that a dog of that size is a lot easier to manage than the labs she remembers from her dog owning  years.

M spent the morning in the garden trimming ceanothus and spreading the last of this year’s homemade compost. The day was warm-almost-hot and cloudless, a lot like summer and also just a bit like fall. M spent the middle of the day in the garage trying to rejuvenate a 40-volt lithium ion battery that had fallen into a coma and refused to accept recharging. There is lots of advice on the internet about how to solve this problem and M tried two different methods. After both failed he ordered a new battery online and spent the next hour in the kitchen making chocolate chip cookies to console himself. E’s new garden umbrella arrived in the early afternoon. She spent some time unpacking and assembling it and found it good. But alas, not all is perfect here on Oak Avenue. While she was out there, E saw a large rat climbing down the inside of our fence and finding shelter beneath M’s monster blackberry bush. E now refers to the berries as Rat Berries and refuses to eat them.

Sunday, August 30    Deaths: 458 (+4)    Cases 26,554 (+261)

E did a Zoom meeting with old friends S and Mrs H and had a nice time catching up on what’s going on back there in upstate NY. Mrs. H runs a food bank and has had the challenge of keeping it going in times of pandemic. S has plans for kayaking by moonlight two nights from now. M joined in briefly and said a few words about Merleau-Ponty and the building of philosophical castles upon sand–shifting sand. M himself is working on an essay called “What is Real?” He’s pretty sure that once it is published it will clear everything up. 

Cirello’s Pizza will be providing our main entree this evening. Entertainment will be provided by Episode 8 of Cable Girls, a Spanish series about a group of women telephone operators in Madrid in the 1920s. The main themes involve romance, money, and women’s rights issues. Great stuff. There was only one killing in the first few episodes, but now we have another, a mysterious murder near the end of Episode 7. Francisco went to meet the evil blackmailer Beltran, intending to kill him. But when he got there Beltran was already flat on his back on the floor in a pool of blood. Thinking quickly, Francisco searched the room and found the incriminating photos of himself and Alba that had been the basis for the blackmail, but in the process he dropped his gold cigarette case that has his name engraved inside. And just after he left, we saw a woman’s arm pluck up the cigarette case and presumably bear it away. Francisco and Alba now believe they are safe, but for how long?